Care Hospitals acquires property in Hyderabad

Care Hospitals Pvt. Ltd, a Hyderabad-based multispecialty hospital chain, said it has acquired a new property in Hyderabad from the US-based Alexandria Medical Center.

The property, a new building with 300,000 sq ft built-up area near Hyderabad’s IT hub HITEC City, will be converted to a 250-bed hospital.

The hospital chain did not disclose the cost of acquisition but said the total cost, which includes acquiring the property and converting it into a 250-bed hospital, will cost around Rs.200 crore.

With the latest acquisition, Care has 17 hospitals across nine cities with total bed capacity of 2,400, making it the fourth largest hospital chain after Gurgaon-based Fortis Healthcare Ltd, Chennai-based Apollo Hospitals Ltd and Bengaluru-based Narayana Hrudayalaya Pvt Ltd. Around 40% of Care’s bed capacity is from Hyderabad.

Care said the new hospital will be functional from December 2015 and will focus on oncology and organ transplants in addition to cardiac, neuro and renal science departments. “The project will be funded in debt equity ratio of 1:1,” said Dilip Jose, group chief executive officer of Care.

The buy was funded by an equity investment from Care’s key shareholder, US-based private equity firm Advent International Corp. Advent became the largest shareholder in Care in April 2012 when it invested $110 million as growth capital in the hospital chain.

“The new hospital enhances our leadership position in Hyderabad and provides beds in a key location that is witnessing high demand for quality medical care,” said Jose.

He said the hospital chain will spend Rs.300 crore to build new hospitals and expand the existing ones so as to take the total bed capacity to 3,000 by the end of the financial year.

The company said it is also in advanced stages of opening a greenfield hospital in Bhubaneswar by December for an estimated investment of Rs.90 crore. Coupled with ongoing expansions at existing facilities in Raipur and Pune, it will add another 600 beds.